Chronic Longing as Absent-Object Wrong Attractor: Idealization Dynamics, the Arrival Paradox, and Return Paths Through Present-Satisfaction Ground State

Chronic longing—the persistent ache for an absent object, person, state, or future that cannot be reached without dissolving—is here formally reconceptualized as a wrong attractor W in the landscape of present satisfaction. The healthy ground state S^0_present is defined as full engagement with present reality: appetite and satisfaction cycling in proportion, desires oriented toward achievable ends, and identity grounded in the actual rather than the wished-for.

W arises when the absent object acquires idealization: physical absence removes constraint, imagination fills the gap with perfection, and the longing itself becomes pleasurable—making arrival paradoxically threatening. Nine formal propositions characterize the idealization gap, the displacement cost structure, the arrival paradox (how fulfillment disappoints), consumer culture's manufacture of artificial longing, and the conditions under which authentic present satisfaction becomes accessible.